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1899 
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PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 



AN ACCOUNT 



PENAL AND PENITENTIARY SYSTEM 



INSTITUTIONS OF THEQSTATE OF MICHIGAN 



WITH A CONSIDERATION OF IMPROVEMENTS 



By O. M. BARNES, 
President of the Joint Prison Boards 




BY AUTHORITY 



LANSING 
ROBERT SMITH PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS AND BINDERS 

1899 






'. 



Jrf, 



3y trn n«f Af 

AUG 2 190? 



PEEFACE. 



The occasion which led to the preparation of the following paper was 
this: The International Prison Commission, an organization composed 
of representatives from different nations, is engaged in collecting in- 
formation from the various states and countries as to their prison systems 
with a view to exhibit the condition of prison systems at the close of the 
present century. A communication from the American member of the 
commission, Hon. Samuel J. Burrows of Massachusetts, addressed to the 
Governor requesting an account of the prison system of Michigan, was re- 
ferred by his Excellency to me. The first part of this paper contains the 
account furnished the commissioner. The following extract from his 
communication will be useful to explain the purpose of the commission 
and the scope which the account was expected to take. 

1. Penitentiary System. What system is used in your State, — the solitary sys- 
tem, the system of progressive classification, the congregate system? If different 
systems are in use, in what proportion? How are the prisons classified according to 
the category of prisoners? What is the number of prisons of each class? What 
was the number of convicts of each class last year? 

2. General Administration. Are all the prisons in your State under one cen- 
tral authority? If not, where is the general administration? In any case, what are 
the results? 

3. Discipline. What is the special object of the discipline, to intimidate, or to 
reform the prisoner? Is there an effort to develope hope in him? Are rewards, or 
punishments, preferred as means of discipline? What rewards? What punish- 
ments? 

4. Moral and Religious Influence. What means of moral influence are em- 
ployed by the administration? Are voluntary visitors admitted who may try to im- 
prove the morals of the prisoner? What are the results? 

5. Instruction How much schooling have the prisoners had at the time of .in- 
carceration? What provision is made for instruction during imprisonment? r By 
means of schools, libraries, etc.? 

6. Work. Is there any distinction made between penal and industrial work ? 
How is it organized? Is it given to contractors or directed by the administration 
itself? Which system do you prefer and what are the reasons for your preference? 
Are the products of the labor enough in all or in some prisons to meet expenses? If 
not, what is the amount of deficit? 

- 7. Administrative Personnel of Prisons. How are prison employees chosen 
and for how long a time? Is there any political influence in selecting them, and 
what is the result? What are the qualifications and duties of the employees? Are 
there special schools to prepare prison employees for their duties? Do you regai d 
such schools as essential to the good administration of a prison? 

8. Sanitary Condition of Prisons. Dietary, ventilation, neatness, sickness, 
mortality. 

9. Moral Reform of Criminals. Do the prisoners go out of prison better or 
worse than they were when they came in? What is the number, or the proportion, 
of recidivists? 

10. Sentences. Is it the usage of your state to repeatedly sentence the same 
person for trivial faults to short terms of imprisonments? Has the method of simple 
admonition, probation, conditional sentence for first offence, cumulative and indeter- 
minate sentences, been introduced in your State? What are the effects of these 
different kinds of sentence in the increase or diminution of crime? 

11. Character and Cause of Crime. What are the most frequent crimes or 
misdemeanors in your State? What are the chief causes of them? 



4 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

12. Reform Schools for Juvenile Offenders. What is the number, 
character and general result of these institutions in your State? What is the 
number of inmates? 

13. Aid to Discharged Convicts. How many societies have you to'ook after 
discharged convicts? What are their duties? What results do thev get? 

SAMUEL J. BARROWS. 

State Department. 

Washington, D. C. 

The second part of the paper is a discussion of improvements in the 
svstem and its administration. 



FIRST PAKT. 



AN ACCOUNT of the Penal and Penitentiary System and Institutions of 
the State of Michigan. 



OF PUNISHMENT. 

Punishments imposed for crime and misdemeanor are fines and impris- 
onment — one or both. Corporal punishment is not adjudged in this State 
for any crime. Nor is the death penalty inflicted except for treason, 
and there has been no trial for treason since the organization of the 
State. Neither is permanent legal disability imposed as a conse- 
quence of conviction. Imprisonment may be for life, and for murder in 
the first degree may be solitary confinement. In practice solitary confine- 
ment is not continued beyond a few months except in extreme cases, be- 
cause of its injurious effects upon the health and mental capacity of the 
convict. 

TI. 

THE PRISONS AND OTHER PLACES OF DETENTION AND THEIR SUPERVISION. 

Accused persons before conviction and sentence, if not allowed out on 
bail are confined in the jails awaiting trial. All counties have a county 
jail. It is in charge of the sheriff of the county. These, besides being 
places of detention of accused persons awaiting trial, are made use of as 
places of punishment for minor offenses. 

The places provided for the imprisonment of offenders after sentence 
are: 

First, The State Prison, located at Jackson. 

Second. The branch of the State Prison, located at Marquette. 

Third, The State House of Correction and Keformatory, located at 
Ionia. 

Fourth, The Detroit House of Correction, located at Detroit. 

Fifth, The Michigan Asylum for Dangerous and Criminal Insane, lo- 
cated at Ionia. 

Sixth, The Industrial School for Boys, located at Lansing. 

Seventh, The Industrial Home for Girls, located at Adrian. 

These institutions are each governed by a board of control consisting 
of three members besides the Governor of the State, who is a member ex 
officio of each. The members of the board are appointed by the Governor 
by and with the advice and consent of the senate. The term of office is 
six years. Of each prison the chief officer is a warden. The chief officer 
of each of the other institutions is denominated a superintendent. The 
superintendent of the Asylum for Insane Criminals is a physician and 
denominated the medical superintendent. The superintendent of the In- 



6 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

dustrial Home for Girls is a woman and The board of control is composed 
in part of women. The prisons have their forces of guards, keepers and 
other officers; the Industrial School for Boys and the Industrial Home for 
Girls their forces of attendants and teachers, and the Asylum for Insane 
Criminals its force of attendants. The following table will exhibit the 
employees of each institution, as shown by the last official report, together 
with the number of inmates in each : 

No. of 

Employees. inmates. 

The State Prison 55 852 

Branch of Prison at Marquette 24 200 

State House of Correction 53 477 

Asylum for Dangerous and Criminal Insane 47 24i> 

Detroit House of Correction 45 653 

Eighty-eight of whom were females. 

Industrial School for Boys 50 582 

Industrial Home for Girls 38 300 

Total 3.384 

The prison force in all cases includes a deputy warden, a clerk, a physi- 
cian and a chaplain. The warden of each prison is appointed by its board 
of control, and so the superintendent of each of the other institutions is 
appointed by its board. < They hold their offices indefinitely. They can- 
not be removed except for cause, but may be removed at any time for 
business reasons. (See Sees. 4 and 5, Act 118, Laws 1893.) The subor- 
dinate officers of the prison are appointed by the warden subject to the 
approval of the board, and hold office during the pleasure of the warden 
and the board, and the same is the case in the prison for criminal insane, 
and the institutions for juvenile offenders. The superintendent appoints 
tne officers and employees under him or her with the approval of the 
board, and the tenure is the same. 

SUPERVISION. 

No central supervision of the penal institutions exists, but the boards 
of the three prisons meet in joint session every six months to determine 
the lines of industry to be pursued, and to discuss matters of common 
interest. Each warden and superintendent makes a monthly statement 
of the affairs of his institution to its board of control. The boards them- 
selves make a monthly examination, and every two years a full report to 
the Governor of the State, of the operations and conditions of their re- 
spective institutions. These reports are printed and laid before the legis- 
lature. 

III. 

ASSIGNMENT OF OFFENDERS. 

The assignment of offenders to the different institutions is substantially 
the following: On conviction of any of the graver offenses the convict 
is sent to the State Prison or to the branch of the State Prison. For 
any of the less grave offenses to the State House of Correction at Ionia, 



PRISON SYSTEM OP MICHIGAN 7 

or to the Detroit House of Correction. On conviction of murder the 
offender-must be sent to the State Prison or to the Branch of the State 
Prison. Only male convicts are sent to the State House of Correction. 
Females, if not sent to the State Prison, are sent to the Detroit House 
of Correction. Murderesses are sent to the State Prison but may be trans- 
ferred to the Detroit House of Correction. Young offenders under the 
age of sixteen, if a boy, and seventeen if a girl, on conviction of any 
offense not punishable by imprisonment for life, unless incorrigible, or 
unfit from disease for a reformatory, are sent, the one to the Industrial 
School for Boys, and the other to the Industrial Home for Girls; the boys 
until they reach the age of seventeen, the girls twenty-one, unless sooner 
discharged by the board of control. 

The board is authorized to discharge these juvenile offenders before the 
expiration of their terms if they have become reformed. The theory in 
regard to them is that training, education and discipline are the means 
most effectual to protect society and save the offender. The law provides 
that they "shall be kept disciplined, instructed, employed and governed" 
until they be reformed and discharged or until they arrive at the age pre- 
scribed for release. (How. Stat. Sec. 9819.) These institutions for juve- 
nile offenders combine the characteristics of the home, the school and the 
place of correction. If the person be so vicious and incorrigible as to be 
unfit for these institutions and yet be within the ages named, the sen- 
tence is to the penal institution indicated by the sex, age and crime. 

Juvenile disorderlies and truants of both sexes are committed to these 
homes for detention, discipline and schooling, but only when suitable pri- 
vate homes cannot be obtained for them, and until such homes can be 
arranged for them. 

These institutions are not surrounded by walls as the prisons are, nor 
are the windows grated. The inmates are classified and assigned to dif- 
ferent dormitories, each of which is under the care of a teacher or matron, 
or both. All the inmates attend the schools. 

Industries suited to the sex and condition of the inmates are taught 
in these institutions for juvenile offenders. Each institution has a farm 
and garden connected with it : The Industrial School for Boys, its shops ; 
the Industrial Home for Girls, its work-rooms also. It must be admitted 
that the title "Industrial School" does not indicate the purpose of the 
institution but only one of its methods. It was instituted and is main- 
tained for the detention, correction, discipline and instruction of young 
offenders. Its original title was "House of Correction." It continues to 
be a place of actual detention, discipline and correction. General edu- 
cation and instruction in industries are the most conspicuous means em- 
ployed. Some have questioned the propriety of dropping the more deter- 
rent name and substituting in its place the present one on the ground that 
this impairs the deterrent influence of the institution. 

IV. 

SPECIAL PROVISIONS REGARDING JUVENILE OFFENDERS. 

There exists in each county of the State an agent of the Board of Cor- 
rections and Charities appointed by the Governor. When a complaint is 
made to a magistrate against a juvenile offender for an offense, not pun- 



S FBESOH SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

t " imprisonment for life, this agent is ~: _ -fore farther 

proceedings Er examinefi the ::->- m "ell as the parentage and circum- 
stances of the : . n Be ] ad i ivises with the magisti ite The accused may 
be return ed to parents, guardian :: friends n in proof of the offense 
charged bound : of :: some suitable person, :: lis sjed : n so -traded 
sentence : fined, or sent the Industr: 8ehc : boy Is the Indus- 
trial Home if a girl, as the -_ :: :_r lerused ind the nature of 
the offense may aeem - : require. If the rffense barged be disorderly 
induct i I this includes bra mey . and the offender between the ages of 
eight in i : urteen :~ is Um >f the magistrate. If it be the first offense, 
tc suspend sentence. As a conviction impair- aeJf-respeet ind is an 

. ;'.e tc success in life if there is reason tc believe mat the 
will be deterred from further offense by admonition, and the offense be 
minor, some magistrates t] in a conviction, but give the per- 

son accused an opportunity to save himself from the stigma of a convic- 
tion by thereafter observing :Lr law. 

This course in the hands of discreet magisti ites is ttended with good 
results. Thrir were 1.155 arrests of juvenile offenders during the year 
reported " x : those irrested were returned to parents or dis- 
ced 171 i e lea led on sus: 117 fined: 274 committed to 
the Industrial School or Hom 



PLACING BOYS ABS GIELS I>' PRIVATE FAMILIES 

~-r inmates : the Industrial H i Girls and the Industrie I - 

for Boys are milies i in the judgment of the 

board of managers on the mmendation of the superintendent this 

course is best for the inmate and the State, If the inmate's parents or 
guardian be suitable lians he may be returned to them or him in 

such case. In practice those ommitted to these institutions remain 
therein only about one-half of their term on an ge Shone out on 

>le ad in families remain in charge of the institution till the end of 
the term for which t tted unless soonei Uscharged by the 

board on reformation. The superintendents be « rat :'_ >ver them and 
those who have them in their families, and may take them back into the 
institution at any time the snpc a this course the best. A 

life in a suitable family i jtter than a too pro. : ng 

in ~ie public nstitnt P se of sue] >::: of the 

inmates out in families the so] lerintei . .". .-:_~ : - me suitable >ffice visits 
these ad girls as >ften is is leemed neeesss i : does the agent 

of the Boar! actions and Chai ties And they and the families 

that have them are reqnii ed t rej _t from time to time, by which means 

- informed. At the close of the last biennial 
June 1898, the - wen ri in families from the 

Industrial Bch >] 272 jys md : >m the Industrial Home 108 g 
in charg- f these instituti ns 



PRISON SYSTEM OP MICHIGAN 9 

VI. 
> 

THE DANGEROUS AND CRIMINAL INSANE. 

Persons accused of committing or of attempting to commit crimes but 
who cannot be tried because of their insanity, also those who are accused, 
tried and acquitted on the ground of their insanity, if the insanity con- 
tinues, and also those convicts that become insane during their imprison- 
ment in the prisons, are committed to the prison for the Dangerous and 
Criminal Insane where they are treated for their malady the same as in 
other asylums for the insane. If the convicts recover before the end of 
their term of imprisonment they are returned to the prison from whence 
they came. 

One who cannot be tried because of insanity may be tried after he is 
cured, provided his insanity arose after he committed the offense imputed. 
Tn the other cases the inmarte is discharged when cured, by the board of 
control on the recommendation of the medical superintendent. 

VII. 

SENTENCE. 

Question. "Is it the usage of your state to repeatedly sentence the same person 
for trivial fautls to short terms of imprisonment? Has the method of simple admon- 
ition, probation, conditional sentence for first offence, cumulative and indeterminate 
sentences, been introduced in your state? What are the effects of these different 
kinds of sentence in the increase or diminution of crime? 

The indeterminate sentence of convicts does not exist in this State. A 
law passed some years ago did provide for an indeterminate sentence in 
certain cases at the discretion of the court. It was held unconstitutional 
so that it is not in force. 

The principle of it exists and has for many years in the case of persons 
sent to the Industrial School for Boys and to the Industrial Home for 
Girls. The boards of these institutions have each the power to release 
the inmates when they are reformed and cured of the evil habit at any 
time before the end of the sentence. But this principle is not applied to 
adult inmates of the prisons. The prisoner in certain cases, however, 
may be allowed on parole for the last part of his term, but the parole does 
not have any effect on the term of the sentence of imprisonment nor does 
it take away the liability of the convict to be returned to and kept in the 
prison. 

SUSPENDED SENTENCE. 

Express provision exists for release on suspended sentence in the case 
of juvenile offenders, and the same course is sometimes pursued with 
adults on first conviction for minor offenses. 

HABITUAL OFFENDERS. 

The practice exists in this State as in many others, of sentencing offend- 
ers guilty of repeating minor offenses to quite the same punishments for 
the second and subsequent offenses as for the first. . The result is that 



10 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

many of this class repeat similar offenses many times and are convicted 
over and over. The more discreet magistrates, however, increase the pun- 
ishment on the second and subsequent convictions. Many of those best 
qualified to judge believe that the treatment of this class of offenders 
should be reformed and public opinion is strongly tending towards the 
conclusion that such convicts should be treated with reference to their 
character and habits rather than for one particular offense, disconnected 
from the preceding ones, and that they should be treated for a cure of the 
habit, and to this end that, on being adjudged habitual misdemeanants 
or criminals, they should be sentenced to imprisonment for an indefinite 
period or for a definite period with provision for an earlier release on 
reformation, to be released, quite as the insane are from the asylum or 
the sick from the hospital, when they are cured of the criminal habit: That 
the power to place such habitual offenders on parole should exist and that 
before final release they should be placed on parole to test their reforma- 
tion, so that, before the end of their term, if found to still have the 
criminal habit, they can be returned to prison for violation of the parole 
until they are cured. 

The principle of progressive increase of punishments for repetition 
of the same offense exists in respect to disorderlies. The penalty is in- 
creased on the second conviction, and still more on the third, but the char- 
acter of the penalties remain the same, deterrent merely, and magistrates 
quite generally neglect to inquire into the antecedents of such offenders, 
or to pursue the requirements of this statute. Many believe more reforma- 
tory and curative treatment should accompany the deterrent measures 
already authorized. 

VIII. 

PENITENTIARY SYSTEMS. 

All the prisons of this State are conducted. on what is known as the 
congregate plan, that is. the convicts work in company in shops, take at 
least two of the meals in the same common dining room, attend religious 
services in the same chapel : those that are required or permitted to attend 
the prison school, meet together in classes. But while this is true, each 
prisoner has his separate cell in which he sleeps and is confined at night 
and when not at work, in the chapel, taking exercise, or in the school 
room. Only one prisoner is confined in the same cell. Convicts that can 
not work are given exercises in the yard. Incorrigible convicts i of which 
the number is very small), are kept in their cells except when exercising. 
They work alone in their cells. 

The silent system, as understood, does not exist in the prisons, but 
conversation among prisoners is not allowed except at particular times. 

IX. 

THE DISCIPLINE. 

It is both deterrent and reformatory. Both rewards and punishments 
are employed. For good behavior the prisoner gains good time, gains in 
grade and in privileges, while loss of these follow infraction of rules. 
Corporal punishment is also inflicted sometimes for misconduct. The loss 



PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 1L 

of grade and privileges is found among the most effectual means of secur- 
ing obedience and promoting reformation. 

> Prison discipline is contemplated by our prison authorities as similar 
in its essential features and purposes to army discipline; the purpose in 
the one case being to make effective soldiers out of raw recruits and in 
the other to make law-abiding, self-supporting citizens out of convicts. 

It is not peculiar in its methods : The mother trains her children to be 
courteous and polite by requiring them to refrain from rude acts and to 
do proper ones, even before they appreciate the reason for courtesy and 
civility. Aristotle taught more than two thousand years ago that by the 
doing of right acts men acquired the virtues, and modern masters teach 
us that the doing of right, proper and useful acts most naturally leads the 
doer to the possession of the virtues that dictate them. The same prin- 
ciple dictates the prison discipline. Hence the prisoner is required to ab- 
stain from wrong and required to do right, proper and useful acts with 
exactness and punctuality. 

The first step, or one of the first, with the adult is to impart a knowledge 
of the right way of life; the second is to procure conformity to this right 
way. This last the discipline attempts to accomplish by insisting on 
right practice till this is seasoned and fixed into a permanent habit. The 
discipline is calculated on the one hand to lessen the disposition to do 
wrong and on the other to make the convict afraid to do so whether in 
prison or out of it. Keformation and deterrence go together. Convicts 
not at first susceptible to mere reformatory work become so when de- 
terrent measures are resorted to, while some not influenced by reform- 
atory measures are reduced to obedience by deterrent ones. 

A question has sometimes arisen as to the relative importance of de- 
terrence and reformation in the prison system. Neither is given ex- 
clusive attention to the neglect of the other. In all our prisons effort is 
made to reform convicts, not excepting even those who are under life 
sentences. And in all reformatories there is more or less coercion and 
deterrent treatment of the inmates. 

The deterrent features of the imprisonment do more to restrain than 
the reformatory ones; that is, the fear of the privations, disgrace and suf- 
fering that follow penitentiary imprisonment deters more than the fear 
of reformatory treatment. The one is more prominent in the peniten- 
taries, the other in the reformatories; the one more necessary with one 
class; the other more effectual with another. Both are combined in some 
cases. There is correction for reformation, and progress made in re- 
formation makes less correction effective. 

The discipline in the Michigan prisons differs from that found in some 
other prisons in this, viz.: It is understood that in some prisons unneces- 
sary and useless acts, and observences as well as useful ones, are selected 
as means of discipline. A compliance with these is exacted. The com 
pliance is useless except to evince obedience. In this state the acts which 
the prisoner is required to do and the conduct which he is required to 
pursue are necessary, useful and proper, so that the prisoner sees that 
what he is required to observe and do is right and useful in itself. (Jem 
pliance with a requirement to do useful, proper and necessary acts is 
found easier and better calculated to build up moral character than a 
compliance with mere useless and technical acts. The performance of 
acts because they are right, proper and useful is believed to be better 



3 2 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

calculated to inculcate the virtues that underlie them as, "by doing right 
acts men acquire the virtues." 

Toward imparting information as to duties in prison each convict is 
furnished with a copy of the rules. If he cannot read or does not under- 
stand the English language the rules are interpreted to him. The fol- 
lowing section of the statute relating to this matter applies to all the 
prisons: 

"Sec. 30. Respecting each prisoner received into either prison upon 
direct sentence thereto, the board shall cause to be entered from time to 
time in a register such facts as can be ascertained of parentage, and of 
early social influence as seem to indicate the constitutional and acquired 
defects and tendencies of the prisoner, and based upon these an estimate 
of the character of the prisoner, and the best probable plan of treatment. 
Upon such register shall also be entered from time to time, minutes of 
observed improvement, of deterioration of character, and notes as to 
methods of treatment employed, and all orders or alterations affecting the 
standing or situation of prisoners, and any facts of personal history which 
may be brought to the knowledge of the board affecting the question of 
transfer to another prison, of the final release of the prisoner, or his being 
suffered to go out on parole." (Act 118, Laws 1893.) 

While the discipline necessarily contemplates the safety of the prison, 
it has for its great object the fitting of the convict for life as a member of 
society. It seeks to do this by enabling him to appreciate a right course 
of life, making him disposed to conform to and afraid to depart from it. 

In this view of the case he is asked to discipline himself; somewhat in 
the same spirit as the pupil who would advance in his studies is advised 
to subject himself to a rigid discipline. Self-discipline is deemed better 
than enforced obedience. 

Hope is inspired; so is self-respect, as dispositions calculated to aid the 
prisoner's reformation. For example, when a prisoner is allowed out of 
prison on parole he does not wear clothing such as he wears in the prison, 
lest it should indicate he is a prisoner and draw down upon him dis- 
paragement. This is done so that he may be received according to his 
conduct and see the advantage of right behavior. A convict would be 
regarded as hardly fit to be paroled if he could wear prison clothes out 
of prison without mortification. 

If the sentence of the adult convict were so that discharge might be in 
some particulars dependent on reformation after sentence, it is believed 
reformative discipline would be still more productive of good results. 

Corporal punishment is sometimes administered by means of a leather 
paddle (the lash on the bare back is prohibited by law). But any corporal 
punishment in the prison is now rare. Convicts are sometimes locked in 
and handcuffed to the doors of the punishment cell for short times as a 
punishment. 

To those in the first and second grades the loss of grade and the privi- 
leges incident thereto and the fact that no deduction from the sentence 
called "good time" is allowed for any month in which an infraction of the 
rules is recorded against the convict and the fact that no one can be 
paroled if an infraction is recorded against him within the preceding 
year are, when the rules are strictly adhered to and enforced by the of- 
ficials, important means for procuring good behavior. 

A low diet is also employed in some cases as a punishment alone or 
in connection with other measures. Where tobacco is allowed (and it is 



PRISON SYSTEM OP MICHIGAN 13 

allowed, to some prisoners) the denial of this for a time is likewise done 
for a correction. The taking away of the cell light temporarily (one is 
^allowed in the cell ordinarily for a time in the evening) is also sometimes 
done as a punishment. 

The number of letters a convict may write to go out is dependent some- 
what on his grade and behavior. This also has its influence on his con- 
duct. 

X. 

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. 

In the principal prisons the chaplain devotes his entire time to the 
instructing of the inmates in religion and morals. Besides the services 
of the chaplain all the prisons employ teachers for the prison school. A 
prison library is maintained by each prison for the use of the prisoners. 
Lectures are also delivered to the inmates at times. Voluntary visitors are 
seldom admitted to try to improve the morals of the convicts, the ad- 
ministration being of opinion that the experienced chaplain can be of 
more service than the volunteer. But if a convict desires to see a priest 
or minister of a particular denomination his request is granted when it 
<^an consistenly be done. Every convict is supplied with a bible. 

XL 

INSTRUCTION. 

The degree of illiteracy among prisoners in this state is shown propor- 
tionately by taking the case of the prisons. There were received in these 
institutions during the two years ending June 30th, 1898, 1,310 convicts. 
Of these, 1,070 could read, write and cipher; 1,158 could read and write, 
and 1,184 could read only, and the remaining 126 were wholly illiterate. 

All the prisons maintain schools for the education of the convicts and 
valuable results are realized from work in this direction. Many wholly 
unable to read when they came to the institution have acquired the 
common school education. The library of the state prison alone con- 
tains over 3,000 volumes and m well patronized by the convicts. 

The moral standing of convicts when received and the effects of im- 
prisonment are shown approximately by these facts. Of the 525 con- 
victs received at the state prison during the two years ending June 30, 
1898, 394 were undergoing the first conviction, 108 their second, 16 their 
third and seven their fourth or subsequent conviction. Approximately a 
fourth of the serious crimes had, during the two years been committed by 
the small number who had been once or more times in prison. The 
proportion of repetitions was less than it had been the two years ending 
June 30, 1896. Fifty-one of these convicts were convicted of crimes in- 
volving life; 80 of crimes involving virtue; 394 of crimes involving prop- 
erty. 

XII. 

CLASSIFICATION OF CONVICTS. 

The inmates of the institutions are graded and classified into three 
grades according to their moral character and conduct in the prison, and 
a record is made of the conduct of each prisoner. 



14 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

On being received into the prison the convict is placed in the middle or 
second grade. If he is gnilty of misconduct of a serious nature he is 
reduced to the third grade, but not till he has had his opportunity to 
evince character. On the other hand as soon as he has served one-fourth 
of his term, if his record for the six months preceding be free and no 
ground exist against him. he is promoted to the highest grade. He is 
thus graded or advanced from one grade to another according to his 
conduct. 

The prisoners privileges are according to his grade. In the state 
prison those in the third grade wear striped clothing, but only those. The 
other grades have their appropriate clothing. Of 832 convicts in the 
state prison July 1. 1S9S. 704 were in the first grade. 98 the second and 14 
the third. 

XIII. 

GOOD TIME. 

Prisoners under first conviction may. by good conduct, that is. avoid- 
ance of infraction of the rules, shorten their sentences. For each month 
during which there is no infraction of the rules, they receive credit as 
follows : 

During the first and second years five days for each month. During 
The third and fourth years, six days; fifth and sixth years, seven days: 
seventh, eighth and ninth years, nine days; tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thir- 
teenth and fourteenth years. 10 days; fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth. 
eighteenth and nineteenth years. 12 days. From and including the 
twentieth year. 15 days. 

No credit or good time is allowed for any month in which the prisoner 
has been guilty of an infraction of the rules. 

"A convict serving a second sentence in the prison is allowed for the 
several periods in order named above, two. three, four. five. six. seven 
and eight days as good time and no more. And if any convict has al- 
ready served a second term in prison he shall be allowed no good time." 

The board may. by general rule, prescribe how much of the good time 
earned under the foregoing provisions a convict shall forfeit for more than 
one infraction of the rules in any month and for any serious act of insub- 
ordination, attempt to escape or escape, the board may by special order 
take away any portion or the whole of the good time made by any convict 
up to the date of such offense. On recommendation of the warden, the 
board may. as a reward for specially meritious conduct, such as aiding 
officials in cases of insubordination or attempt at escape, restore to any 
convict the whole or any portion of the good time lost because of any 
minor infraction of the rules. One of the ordinary penalties for the in- 
fraction of the rules is the forfeiture of good time previously earned and 
the refusal of good time for the month in which the infraction occurs. 

XIY. 

THE PABOLING OF PBISONEES. 

Convicts serving sentences other than a sentence for life, may be pa- 
roled by the governor in certain cases and on certain conditions. They 
may thus be allowed to spend a part of the sentence outside of the prison 



PRISON SYSTEM OP MICHIGAN 1 - r > 

but always until the end of their term under surveillance and certain 
stringent conditions. No convict can be paroled if he lias previously 
served two terms of imprisonment for felony. 

Nor can any one be paroled till he has served half of his sentence. Nor 
can he be properly allowed on parole until he has endured punishment 
sufficient to vindicate the justice of law and induce contrition. 

Besides these provisions the rules require that the convict shall have 
been in the first grade at least six months continuously before the time 
he is recommended for parole and that his conduct in prison has been 
such as to satisfy the board and warden that he is a reformed man and 
that, if allowed on parole, he will observe the laws and conduct himself 
properly. Before he can be allowed on parole employment must be found 
for him and some proper person must be found who will undertake in 
writing to look after him and report his behavior, as often as once a 
month, to the warden of the prison. Those on parole are subject to be 
returned to prison whenever the governor for any cause, such as unsuit- 
able surroundings, misconduct, etc., deems it best they should be back 
in prison; and they are uniformly taken back into the prison for any 
violation of the rules governing the conduct of prisoners on parole. 
Briefly stated, two conditions are required to exist in order to justify 
the paroling of adult convicts: First, the convict must have earned his 
parole by good conduct and reformation. Second, it must appear to the 
warden and Boards of Control that the circumstances which will sur- 
round him on parole will be more conducive to his permanent reclamation 
and rehabilitation than spending the same time in the prison. The con- 
vict is not paroled as a matter of clemency, but as judicious treatment 
with a view to promote and test his reform and to establish him in some 
w T ork or occupation while the prison authorities still have control over 
him. 

Conduct in a state of liberty such as the convict enjoys on parole is 
deemed the surest test of reformation. By the parole system this test 
can be made before final release, and while there is still opportunity to 
make some further correction if the convict has been prematurely trusted. 

The fitness of the prisoner for parole is determined from his character 
and record, quite the same as the student's fitness for graduation is de- 
termined from his daily recitations and final examination. Petitions 
from friends of the prisoner and other outside influences are not deemed 
proper to be considered any more than such would be in behalf of the 
graduation of a student. For this reason the law of some states pro- 
hibits the consideration of petitions in determining the prisoner's fitness. 
In states as in Michigan where this provision is not in the parole law the 
reasonableness and propriety of the course are so manifest that it is 
generally pursued. In a judicious administration of the law the propri- 
ety of the parole must be determined from the character and record of 
the convict, independent of petitions and outside influences. 

During the two years ending June 30, 1898, there were paroled from 
the three prisons 146 prisoners; 53 of them from the state prison; 28 
from the Marquette prison, and 65 from the State House of Collection. 
It should be borne in mind that none of these w r ere paroled till near the 
end of their terms. The terms of all but 52 had expired before September 
1, 1898. As a general thing, these convicts on parole had been at work 
earning wages from the time they were parolled. The wages of those 



16 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

from the state prison amounted to $5,980. It will be further seen that 
one great purpose of the parole, the getting of the prisoner into a self- 
supporting condition before final release, has been kept in view. 

PARDONING POWER. 

The executive has. under the constitution and laws of the state, the 
power to pardon convicts, except for treason and in cases of impeach- 
ment. The pardon may be upon conditions. 

Constitution of Michigan, Art. 5, Sec. 11. 
Howell's Statutes, Sec. 9628 to 9632. 

The investigation of applications for pardon is made by a board of five 
members created for this purpose, denominated the Advisory Board of 
Pardons. While the power to pardon without the recommendation of 
the Pardon Board is possessed by the governor, it is seldom exercised 
«ave on the recommendation of this board. 

XVI. 

WORK. 

Question. Is there any distinction made between penal and industrial work? 
How is it organized? Is it given to contractors or directed by the administration 
itself? Which system do you prefer and what are the reasons for your perference? 
Are the products of the labor enough in all or in some prisons to meet expenses? If 
not, what is the amount of deficit? 

Sentences to the prisons ,£or crime always include hard labor. This 
does not exist in the sentences to the Industrial School for Boys or to 
the Industrial Home for Girls, but in both of these institutions labor is 
pursued. In the prisons labor is enforced as an incident to all peniten- 
tiary imprisonments both as a punishment and for discipline and refor- 
mation. The labor is productive, that is, not merely penal, but profit- 
able, and the income from it inures to the benefit of the state, and goes 
towards the support of the prison. 

Merely penal labor, that is toil with no regard to production, is not 
pursued in the prisons of this state. Labor that is productive is prefer- 
red as better calculated to build up the character of the convict, as he 
has the feeling that he is producing something of value. It ma}' be just 
as deterrent as mere penal toil. It makes the prisoner contribute to his 
own support and saves taxation. The law itself provides that prisoners 
shall be employed at productive labor, and the warden is required to 
"use every proper means to furnish employment to the prisoners most 
beneficial to the state and best suited to their several capacities." 

Labor in the prisons is carried on upon the state account as well as 
under the contract system as is found best for the interest of the state. 
Prisoners are not assigned to contracts if they can be better employed on 
state account. There is no difference in the treatment of the convict 
when employed on contract than when employed on state account. He 
is never placed under the dominion of the contractor, but remains under 
the control of the prison keeper the same in the one case as in the other, 
and enjoys precisely the same opportunities for training, schooling and 
in all other respects. 

The contract system, where it exists in this state, is the limited one. 
The results are best for the state in general in the industries carried on 



PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 17 

upon the contract system. This is due largely lo the fact that under the 
contract system the business enjoys more permanent management by 
more skillful and experienced foreman and managers, who are appointed 
^or their skill and retained for their successes. 

Under present conditions I regard the contract system as best in most 
lines of work, simply because as these conditions are, it yields the better 
results. The earnings of the Michigan State Prison have some years 
paid all expenses, including the salaries of officers and employees. For 
the two years ending June, 30, 1898, the deficiency, or the expense above 
earnings, was on an average of $10,229.87 per year, which is £12.23 per 
year for each convict. 

C As to the question : "What system of work do you prefer and what is 
the reason for your preference?" a fuller answer seems required. 

I understand this question as relating specially to the two systems 
most common, namely, the one the state account system, where pris- 
on industries are carried on by the state as proprietor, where the state 
owns the shops, furnishes the machinery, supplies the working capital, 
buys the raw materials, pays the superintendents, sells the product as 
private * corporations do; and the other the contract system where the 
convicts are hired by contractors who pay the state a given price per day 
for their labor, the contractors furnishing the machinery, the working 
capital, the materials and superintendents carrying on manufacturing 
with convicts for operatives, and selling the products. jr 

The lease system does not exist in this state and the piece price system ^\j^/£ 
is only a form of the state account system, so these may be left out of the 
account. 

I say first, I have no prejudice in favor of the one system as against the- ^ 
other. It cannot be said that in the prisons of this state the one is pre- 
ferred to the other because of any prejudice. 

The attitude in this state is that whatever the system of work the con 
vict should never be placed under the control of other than prison of- 
ficers; and that that system of work should be pursued that is found 
in fact the best for the state, all things being taken into account. That 
form of the contract system existing in some of the states where the con- 
vict is placed under the dominion of the contractor is deemed objection- 
able because of this dominion. The treatment of the prisoner should 
always be, and in this state is the same under the one system as the 
other. Where this is or can be made the case the prisons should, of 
course, adopt the system of work that produces in each case the best 
financial results to the people. 

The fact that under the contract system the contractor furnishes the 
machinery, raw materials and working capital, furnishes and pays the 
superintendents and is at the expense of selling the products, renders 
the contract system an advantage to the state in many cases as the state 
thereby avoids these expenses and escapes the risks and loss of trade. 
Government is not so well constituted to look after these things, as af- 
fairs now are, as private parties} 

(The greatest obstacle to the carrying on of industries on state account 
in prisons is, however, the practical difficulty of obtaining and retaining 
managers of experience and training in all the different kinds of manu- 
facturing carried on. In this age of competition none of these manu- 



IS PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

factoring enterprises succeed in prison or ont of it. unless they art- in 
tinuous charge of skilled, able and experienced managers. 

A more certain mode of securing skilled and successful m _ - of 
these prison industries is, to let convicts to contractors iclw har^ ti,.r sfejH 
and experience requisite to succeed. In this war eacb 
under- the control of a skilled mana^ 

II all the :-onviets should be employed on a single large industry, 
superintendents would be fewer. But diversifi cation is desirable. 

rperience is invaluable in business. So is steadiness. It is import- 
ant that no changes be made save to improve. Sue ssful 
must be steady as well as intelligent. As conditions : 
on's management of business on state account is liable t _ - 

than manufacturing by contractors. 

These are considerations of much importar 

The statistics relating to convict labor, published ~ 
of Labor of the United States, furnish very c- - -.."... 
superiority of the contract system in a financial point of v. 

Two questi. : i the contract syi neces* 

favorable son disci nd reform? It m 

On the other hand, it may be s<;» administer! I si jnsi 

in thes sp« s as : ther * stem of work. It is « 

.nets who work on contracts art - 
others — work the same hours, always under prison kc 
same advantages. So if in any prison the conditions under this 
not as well, they may be mad ut abandon g 

tern, The limited contract system n 
of many of the best prison men of ■ . : . _ - 

S* : d. can the disadvam _ 6 of the s 
conic - me, undoubtedly, can gress will, 

tisan interference in prison business, and rend 

nagement of prison indu>:. es If t t sysH 

prevail in onr prisons, so that offi re ".employ: I ddbes Jon 

their merits and retained, administration of :•■ . stration, 

tions would enable the state ac: t sysl tl n 

do. As conditions n> attempt to 1 

our prisons would b- loss ad be as i si an- 

other state "a lamentable failure." No system w: 1 1 f itseli 

i is dependent on the ability 
that the prison authorities be lei" on- 

tracts as well as on state aeconni s : that the best plan can be purs 
As rapidly as eondi 

natural result will be to crowd out more and more ch aa. 

Among those c« which I re$« 1 as essen 

state account system in our prisons, are the prevale: 
tern of appointi: - prison offices, and the merit term re of office 
removal save for can iter permanency of posit: : nai- 

aess may continue in the hands of persons of ability ant. 
may not be removed except for cause, but who may be rem 
time for business reasons. In such case, as in all bu 
the managers will owe their appointmeL* ix then merit and fit: 



PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 19 

depend on their attention and success for their tenure of office, and not 
on the favor of parfr . 

(One- aspersion upon contract labor is undeserved. It is said the eon- 
trad system is a kind of slavery; and that it makes the convict a kind of 
slave. Is it any more slavery than when the convict is made to work 
against his will on stale account? If the one is slavery, (hen the other . a 
is also. v-^ 

The convict is such by his crime, and the constitution in prohibiting 
involuntary servitude expressly exempts what is imposed as a punish- 
ment of crime. The aspersion is such only, and not an argument, and 
it is undeserved.^) 

f An observation often made cannot be accepted. It is said, "suppose 
otic system be better financially, what of it?" That the net cost of prison 
management is not to be considered I deny. Under some prison systems 
the net cost, that is expenses above savings, is ten times as great as under 
others, and the taxation for maintenance of prisons ten times as great 
per convict. Even if prison men were disposed to overlook this no com- 
prehensive philanthropist and no statesman having in view the well-being 
of all the community can afford to do so. The difference between sys- ,>* 
terns is in some cases as great as |167,000 per year on a thousand con- 
victs and that means less comfort and more unsupplied wants on the part 
of honest taxpayers. If it could be shown that the one system is mate- 
rially more promotive of reformation than the other that would deserve 
consideration but would not justify disregarding expense. That the one 
plan is naturally better for reformation that the other is denied. 

In any case the statement that in the comparison of systems the ex- 
penses of them is not to be considered is unworthy of the real philanthro- 
pist or statesman. The interest and comfort of the innocent and upright 
are to be considered as well as that of the convict?) 

The competition of prison work with free labor, though often brought 
forward as an argument in this discussion of systems, is not actually in- 
volved. Objection is made to work on state account as much as to that 
done under the contract system. It states where the contract system pre- 
vails it is aimed at that; where the state account system does it is directed 
against that. 

The objection, if it be an objection, wmich is denied, applies to both 
systems equally. It cannot be avoided if convicts produce at all, either 
for their own consumption or others. 

Nor does the making of articles to be used in other state institutions 
abolish competition. Free labor would supply these state institutions 
as it has heretofore done if allowed to do so. When the prisons do this, 
as is contemplated in the state of New York and some other states, this 
will deprive free labor of a market it has heretofore had. At best this 
only hides from superficial observers the competition that actually ex- (fy 
ists. and to hide is not to abolish. No matter how circuitous or direct, 
how open or concealed the route which prison products take from the 
prison to other state institutions for consumption, the actual effect on the 
labor of the country is the same in the end as though the prison products 
were placed directly on the general market and the state institutions 
purchased from the general market the articles desired. The proposed 
plan is an unnatural interference with the liberty of trade that must 
■c-ause irritation to a part of the people and expense and loss to the com- 



20 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

ruunity as a whole, besides inculcating false principles in public affairs. 
It also calls into being many new salaried officers and employees and 
calls into use complicated machinery for pricing prison products and 
transferring them to the other state institutions that must add greatly 
h to taxation. The same opposition will be made to this plan as to any other, 
and in fact it is just as hurtful to labor as any other, so far as it produces, 
and so far as it does not produce when it might it is waste?) 

The fact is, it is as reasonable for convicts to produce as for free men 
to produce or for the same men when they become free. The convict gains 
no right to be supported by the State by reason of his crime and the State 
loses no right to insist he shall support himself because of it. The sense 
of duty to support one's self is one of which the criminal is most destitute 
and one the prison discipline must undertake to impart. There is no way 
this can be so well done as by having him produce, just as the honest 
laborer does, things that do support. The moral as well as pecuniary 
effect is best when there is no waste of time or material, when his labor 
goes the farthest in this useful direction Public policies must not be 
based on false principles. The moment we apply to the convict a different 
system of economics because he is in prison we go astray. When we sub- 
ject to analysis the plans proposed for abolishing the competition of con- 
vict labor we find them based on false principles or expecting results not 
to be realized. The wiser way for the peace of society and the interest of 
» the State is to place prison industries on the same ground as free indus- 
tries and defend that. Prison industries to the extent of what they pro- 
duce contribute to the wealth and greatness of the State and to the 
comfort and enjoyment of its people the same as though the industries 
were carried on by free laborers or as though these laborers were free. 

(It is also said in opposition to the contract system that contractors do 
not pay as much for the labor of convicts as free laborers command. This, 
too, has no actual bearing on the question of systems; but if it does the 
answer is easy. For first the contractors pay as much as the State can 
make the convicts earn for the State when thei) work on State account, and, 
second, the State gets as much for the labor of convicts as it is worth 
under existing conditions when compared with free labor. The govern- 
ment statistics show that convicts produce only one-third the value per 
man on an average that free workmen in the same industries produce. 
When the labor of convicts is let due advertisement is made and the price 
is the highest bid. Low as the price is many prison contractors give up 
their contracts and take their manufacturing out of the prison to be 
carried on with free labor at the higher wages because they can do better 
thereby. This has often occurred in the Michigan State prison} 

Arbitrary and abrupt changes in the system of work or in the lines of 
industry pursued are usually detrimental. The detriment arises from 
many sources. There is the loss of the plant abandoned and of all the 
experience and skill acquired by convicts and employees. Then there is 
the cost of the new plant, the interruption of work, the inexperience and 
want of skill in the new industry with their inefficiency and waste. 
These and other causes often result in a difference to the people of hun- 
dreds of thousands. 

These losses may be avoided and in this State will be if we are pru- 
dent. The power already exists to pursue the system and line of manu- 
facturing that may be found best. (\N"ew lines of work can be put in and 






PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 21 

the State account system adopted throughout, as fast as found best. The 
boards are ready to adopt any new line of work or system that may be 
found- actually better or more generally satisfactory than those nowpur-^ 
.sued. Provision also exists for making articles for other state institu- 
tions. This is now done where reason dictates it. The amount of this 
work will naturally increase if left subject to business principles.} 

Some states in arbitrarily changing from one line of work to another 
or from the contract system to the state account system, and in abolish- 
ing productive industry in the prisons except in the making of articles 
for other state institutions, have acted somewhat as though the farmer 
were to sweep away and destroy the growing crop, without waiting for 
it to be harvested, in order to put in the next crop. When changes have 
been due to the opposition to productive industries in the prisons in 
general, they have usually been made without conforming to business 
methods and regardless of waste and expense. The promoters of these 
changes have looked at the abolition of prison industries as the object 
and not their improvement. 

Where the prison boards are authorized to pursue the mode of work 
that, from time to time, may be found actually best for the State, new 
systems and lines of work will be made to take the place of existing ones 
as fast as new ones are found better, without great losses or disturbance. 
The changes will take place by natural succession as one crop succeeds 
another, not by the destruction, but by the harvest of the first and the 
planting and growth of the other. * 

XVII. 

THE PERSONNEL OF PRISON ADMINISTRATION. 

Political influence, it must be admitted, has at times interfered in the 
appointment of prison officials. The effect of this has been generally 
unfavorable. 

There are no special schools for the training of employees in this State. 
While I should regard such a school as calculated to improve the service, 
in view of the small number to be employed, the advantage would not 
justify the expense in this State. In a larger territory it might. The 
business demands expert knowledge. There is great need that the em- 
ployees be trained men, in this line of work. A misfortune of the situa- 
tion is that the public does not appreciate this. Trained employees are 
dismissed and untrained ones put in their positions without appreciating 
the loss this is to the service. 

XVII] . 

THE FOOD OF CONVICTS. 

It is required by the law to be plain, of good quality and sufficient in 
amount for sustenance. It is so. So the clothing, beds and bedding are 
plain, of good quality, sufficient and appropriate. 

SANITARY CONDITION OF THE PRISONS: It is good. Drainage 
and sewerage are provided, the cell blocks well ventilated, lighted and 
warmed. The water is of good quality. Cleanliness is enforced. The 
prisoners bathe once a week. 



22 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

The theory of the prison administration is that the prisoner will be 
more efficient in his work, of less expense and more reformable while in 
prison, and be less likely to become a public charge after release, if 
maintained in a state of good health — so that economy as well as hu- 
manity dictate that while measures sufficiently deterrent be pursued, 
care be taken also to sustain and preserve the prisoner's capacity for self- 
support as far as possible. 

XIX. 

AID TO DISCHARGED CONVICTS. 

The State has made no provision for the temporary care of discharged 
prisoners while they are seeking rehabilitation, except this, namely : At 
his discharge the prisoner receives a small amount, varying in practice 
from seven dollars and fifty cents to fifteen dollars. This amount is 
always paid him. If his residence be far from the prison he is always 
furnished transportation to his home, if it be within the State. 

There is a private institution at Detroit for aiding discharged prisoners. 
This is quite successful. 






SECOND PAET. 



Such, then, is a condensed account of the prison system of Michigan. 
I have some where read that the Duke of Wellington, near the close of his 
life, was complimented by a lady for his great victory at Waterloo. The 
Duke replied, "Aye, a great victory it was madam. But a great victory 
is just better than a great defeat." Doubtless he recalled what that 
victory had cost: The lives, the treasure, the mountain of debt and the 
burden ,of taxation that weighed so heavily on the English nation. He 
may have said to himself, how much better if the necessity for that battle 
had not existed. We may say quite the same of the best prisons. It 
would be better if we could avoid the necessity for them. Since they 
must be, in order to prevent greater evils, our study should be to make 
them accomplish their purpose as well as possible and at the least expense 
to the honest members of the community. 

THE TREATMENT OF OFFENDERS PREVIOUS TO THE MODERN PRISON SYSTEM. 

It will aid us to understand and appreciate our own system if we glance 
at some features of the penal systems that have preceded it. Three points 
of difference between ancient and modern systems deserve mention. 

First. In regard to the prison itself. 

Second. In regard to the purpose of the imprisonment. 

Third. In regard to the view taken of the future of the prisoner. 

The prison does not exist in rude, uncivilized ages or nations. Its 
existence indicates an advance in civilization. We know that prisons 
existed in Egypt nearly four thousand years ago. Joseph, it,is said, was 
cast into prison with the king's prisoners. Just how the early prisons 
were constructed I cannot state. Some of the Roman prisons remain so 
we can state how they were made. They were, sometimes at least, built 
in the ground, instead of above or on it. Thus the Mamertine prison at 
Rome consisted of two stories, one below the other, hewed in the rock 
of the Capitoline hill. Each story constituted an apartment. There were 
no provisions for cells. The prisoners were let down into these apart- 
ments through the openings in the roof by means of ropes. During the 
medieval ages the king and the baron built prisons in their castles. 
These are still to be seen in the castles that remain. They were some- 
times placed in the tower of the castle. That in the Tower of London is, 
perhaps, an example of the best. The church dignitaries also had prisons 
in their edifices. These medieval prisons were not for the confinement 
of actual offenders only. The baron confined in his prison his subjects 
and neighboring barons to compel them to yield to his demands. The 
king sometimes made a similar use of his; the church dignitary of his. 
Many an honest owner was thereby made to yield his property to the 
oppressor. Many a great writer was in this way made to recant what 



24 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

lie had written and prevented from publishing it. So the prison was 
the instrument of oppression quite as much as of correction. 

The nature of these prisons is expressively given in the name applied 
to them. They were called the place of groans, place of the forgotten. 
The one cast into them was spoken of as having gone to his peace — vade 
in pace, in allusion to the fact that so few came out alive. 

Prisoners as a general thing paid for their board themselves. They 
were generally kept in chains. They were dependent upon their keepers 
for the permission to go unchained, and for the measure of comfort they 
were permitted to enjoy even after paying for it. For all these the keeper 
charged substantially what he pleased. Many prisoners, especially polit- 
ical prisoners, were of high rank and great wealth. These facts enabled 
the warden and keepers to extort large sums from them. The office of 
warden became immensely profitable. The two great prisons of London 
were formerly the Marshalsea and the Fleet. A case reported in the 
17th volume of state trials shows that one Huggins obtained the office of 
keeper of these prisons for life by paying Lord Clarendon the sum of 
£5,000; that after enjoying it till its revenues had made him and his son 
wealthy, he sold his office to parties by the names of Bainbridge and 
Corbet for £5,000; that the cruelties of these keepers exerted largely for 
extortion were so great that the death of several prisoners resulted, in 
consequence of which these keepers were tried for murder. 

The prisons as Howard found them as late as 1773 have been described 
by a reliable author as follows: (Ency. Brit. XIX p. 717.1 "The prisons 
of the kingdom were a disgrace to humanity: they were for the most 
part poisonous, pestiferous dens, densely overcrowded, dark, foully dirty, 
not only ill-ventilated, but deprived altogether of fresh air. The wretched 
inmates were thrown into subterranean dungeons, into wet and noisome 
caverns and hideous holes to rot and fester, a prey to fell disease bred and 
propagated in the prison house, and deprived of the commonest neces- 
saries of life. For food they were dependent upon the caprice of their 
jailers or the charity of the benevolent; water was denied them except in 
the scantiest proportions; they were half naked or in rags; their only bed- 
ding was putrid straw, reeking with exhalations and accumulated filth. 
Every one in durance, whether tried or untried, was heavily ironed; 
women did not escape the infliction. All alike were subject to the rapac- 
ity of their jailers and the extortions of their fellows. Jail fees were 
levied ruthlessly — "garnish" alsx the tax or contribution paid by each 
individual to a common fund to be spent by the whole body, generally 
in drink. Drunkenness was universal and quite unchecked; gambling 
of all kinds was practiced; vice and obscenity were everywhere in the 
ascendent. Idleness, drunkenness, vicious intercourse, sickness, starva- 
tion, squalor, cruelty, chains, awful oppression, and everywhere culpable 
neglect." 

I need not stop to contrast with these prisons our Michigan State prison 
with its 838 apartments, its store rooms, its kitchen, and spacious dining 
room, warmed, lighted and ventilated, with beds, furniture and books. 
provisions, I say in passing, not intended to make crime less hateful or 
dreadful, but a better life easier and more to be desired. 

In the modern prison systems the imprisonment is the punishment. 
Dreadful as the ancient prison was, confinement in it was not counted 
as any part of the punishment. That was added and consisted of fines 






PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 2;> 

or spoliation of the prisoner's estate, of whipping, of thumb screws, the 
stock, the rack, mutilation of the hands, the foot, the eyes, the ears, brand- 
ing with a hot iron, and other tortures compared to which even the prison 
room was a paradise. These wore followed often by the execution of the 
•convict in some painful manner. 

The law which prescribed the punishment of offenders among our early 
English ancestors road as follows: I quote it from Stephen's History of 
Criminal Law, Vol. 1, page 59: 

••Let his hand be cut off or his foot or both according as the deed may 
be. And if he have wrought yet groat or wrong, then let his eyes be put 
our. and his nose and his oars and bis upper lip bo cut off." 

The case of Stubbs, the Puritan lawyer, will show how readily mutila- 
tion was resorted to even in the time of Elizabeth. Stubbs wrote a 
pamphlet against the proposed marriage of the Queen to the Duke of 
Anjou. It was entitled "Discovery of a Gaping Gulph' ? into which Eng- 
land would be plunged by such marriage. The pamphlet was patriotic, 
in word and spirit, but the author's hand was cut off as a penalty for 
having written it. The character of the man thus punished was shown 
when at the close of the operation he waved his hat with the remaining 
hand and said "God save Queen Elizabeth." 

The case of Prynne, not an extreme one indeed, will illustrate the kind 
and variety of punishments inflicted in more recent times. Prynne, a 
popular Puritan writer, was convicted of seditious libel in 1634 for fiercely 
censuring theaters. He was ordered to pay a fine of five thousand pounds, 
dismissed from the bar (he was a lawyer), deprived of his university 
degree (he was an educated man), made to sit twice in the pillory, to 
have both ears cut off, and to be imprisoned for life without books, pen, 
ink or paper. He suffered much of his punishment, but was released by 
the Long Parliament from further imprisonment. 

In the modern system, efforts are made to fit the prisoner for a life of 
self-support after the imprisonment ends. In the ancient system the 
future well-being of the prisoner was not contemplated. To render his 
future as hard as possible he was frequently disabled by mutilation and 
branded to indicate forever his crime. Heretics, for example, often had 
the right hand cut off because it had written the heresy. Those convicted 
of libel were treated in a similar manner. 

The prison system which we now have, constituted for the punishment 
of offenders after conviction, is recent. John Howard commenced his 
work to reform prisons and jails in 1773, but it was not till many years 
after, that the system was made to take anything like its present form. 
The Auburn penitentiary in the state of New York, opened in 1818, is one 
of the first institutions erected to carry out the ideas of this system. 

THE RESULTS OF OUR IMPRISONMENT. 

It must be admitted that our penitentiary imprisonments do not effect- 
ually reform or permanently deter all who undergo them. At first blush 
it may be thought that our imprisonments fail, to a greater extent than is 
the case. On examination we see the failure has been as to some of the 
purposes only — not as to all. While imprisonment has failed to reform 
or permanently deter a large number it has prevented them from pursu- 
ing a criminal career during the time they were in prison, and that has 
4 



26 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

been a great and immeasurable benefit to society. While they were in 
prison the flight of time, by taking them nearer the end of life, has lessened 
their energy and disposition to commit crime. 

Of (the prisoners in the penitentiary some will make useful citizens — a 
larger number, perhaps two- thirds or more, will give society no trouble — 
the remainder are liable to cause serious trouble in two ways : 

First. By the crimes they will themselves commit. 

Second. By the perpetuation of their characteristics to descendents. 

The first danger is easily seen. The last is not so apparent. But it 
is actual and great. Some appreciation of its magnitude may be attained 
by contemplating such cases as the "Jukes family.-' Ada Jukes was born 
in New York about 1750. She was a delinquent herself and the mother of 
a race of paupers, vagrants and criminals. The careers of 709 of her 
descendents have been traced. Members of the family have been a public 
charge in the aggregate 731 years. Many have committed crimes from 
vagrancy to murder. Seventy of them have committed 115 penitentiary 
offences. Fifty-two per cent of the women of this family pursued disrep- 
utable lives. The author of the report on the "Jukes" estimated the 
public expenses the family had caused previous to 1877 at $1,308,000. 
The misery it has caused to victims cannot be estimated. We know it 
must have been great. The career of the family still coutinues. 

The case described by Professor Belmann of the University of Bonn. 
Germany, is another illustration. It is that of "a notorious drunkard 
who died in 1800. His descendents numbered 831. Seven of these were 
convicted of murder. 76 of other crimes; lli ) were professional beggars: 
51 lived on charity; 181 of the women lived disreputable lives. The 
family has cost the German government for maintenance alone in public 
institutions $1,250,000." 

I may ask in passing, is society without power to guard itself against 
such evils? Cannot the danger, in some of the most palpable cases at 
least, be foreseen? The death penalty in former systems prevented, in 
a great degree these consequences. It is expected that imprisonment will 
prevent them in ours. In some cases where otherwise they would arise 
it does so. May not greater forethought and suitable provisions accom- 
plish still more to avert the evil? That the evil is of a magnitude demand- 
ing and of a kind justifying preventive measures is manifest. For 
example in the cases referred to if the careers of these persons and their 
descendants could have been certainly foreseen society would have been 
justified, indeed required, to have adopted measures to prevent it. On 
well recognized principles it does arrest those that threaten to commit 
crime and puts them under bonds or detains them so long as the danger 
exists. 

THE EX-CONYICT. 

The conditions that surround the prisoner upon his release are by- 
some made to bear much of the blame for his relapse. These are some- 
times serious obstacles to him. Some of these are inevitable and all 
must be taken into the account in constituting and administering a prison 
system. 

For the convict to find difficulties on his release must not be thought 
strange. The good encounter obstacles in their laudable pursuits. The 
convict must encounter them. Some persons seem to think that we must 



PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 27 

secure to the released prisoner a reception such as he would be entitled 
to if lie had never boon convicted. I do not see how this can be done. 
All have to go on in life under the reputation they create by their ads. 
►Every good act adds good, every bad damage. I really see no way tor 
the ex-convict to escape the reputation of his criminal acts if he is to* 
remain where he is known, except through reformation. Must ho not 
depend on his reputation for reformation for a favorable reception? Even 
the promise which religion itself offers to the wicked is based on repent- 
ance and an undertaking to sin no more We would be false to reason and 
prudence to say crime does not impair a man's standing. We would be- 
untrue to reason and religion if we were unwilling to admit the efficacy 
of real reformation. Hut we cannot deny that he is only prudent who is 
careful in regard to one who has once committed a. crime. We must 
also admit, I think that the imprisonment Which is a necessity, very natur- 
ally results in impairing the ability of some to restrain themselves in a,, 
condition of freedom. In prison they have not had temptations before 
them; they have not had to exercise self-control as in a state of freedom. 
Their daily living having been supplied without their care, many of them 
have lost the habit, if they ever had it, of taking thought for the future. 
While they have been in prison the world outside has changed. They 
have dropped out of the procession of events in which they once moved.. 
So that they are not in touch with their surroundings. Added to all these 
things is the further fact that many, perhaps most of the prisoners go out 
without means and without any work or business provided. 

These conditions at least, except the last, are inevitable. They are 
the result of the man's crime and of our effort to save him b}' imprison- 
ment instead of putting him to death as the old law did. Societies for 
aiding released convicts have done much good. They are to be encour- 
aged. The effect is very different when the state assumes this. Would 
it not increase the evil for the state to make the ex-convict a kind of 
ward of the state? I think so. 

It is possible for even a charity to be so administered as to increase the 
misery it would relieve. 

Whatever is done for the released prisoner, his unfavorable character- 
istics, his habits of depending upon the public and neglecting efforts for 
self-support must not be encouraged. He must sooner or later, we all 
assume, look out for himself. For the state to assume any part of 
this duty after release only postpones the day, and inclines him to feel 
more strongly that the state owes him a living and that therefore he- 
need not exert himself to plan or undertake a career of self-support. 

Whatever the state does to aid inmates of its penal institutions to meet 
the conditions after release, should be done before release; and be by 
way of improving its prison system and not by extending its support to 
free men because they were once in prison for crime. If work is to be pro- 
vided this is to be done by getting the man at work under the parole sys- 
tem before his term ends; if money, this is to be provided for by allowing 
the prisoner to have and lay up some part of his earnings in the prison. 

VISITING THE PRISON FOR CURIOSITY. 

In many of the prisons the public are permitted to go through the dif- 
ferent shops and apartments for the gratification of their curiosity. Of 
course thev are attended bv a guard who is also their guide. 



PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

The question has arisen as to the propriety of this. I believe it would 
etter if This were much more restricted than it now is. Qf course. 
h visitations as are useful to insure the prudent management of the 
provided for by law and are to be kept up. I the 

ts that are for sight seeing. 
The visiting : [shops belonging to the public, as well as those of 

private nonly restricted because of its interruptions of 

work. The same reason exists at the prison but is not the great reason 
in th r v-r . which is that the visiting referred to interferes with the pur- 
i :li the prison exists. 
That familiarity breeds contempt is an old saying. Such visitors as 
_ merally less abhorre: rispn life after such 

isits than they had partly, perhaps, because they do not see the 

«t abhorrent feati n life. To diminish the bad man's 

-hment tends se the danger of his commit 

a crime. It would be if he supposed prison life harder to bear 

n it is. 

I" may be said that s isit the ss 1 

This is so. But. after all. the deterrent influence of 
its effect as an object lesson, depends in a measure on the 
_ ssed by rhe good 

- fear of it in the bad. 1 the reputation of the prison as a 

of punishment, is a part of its means for deten ng. 
No one. so far as I know, considers that such visiting has any tendency 
-form the prisoners. We km I - metimes has a tendency to inter- 
- with reformation. A «:dass of criminals tak- pride in being pointed 
- great iminals. To 1 - 1 for and stared at makes them proud 
isness _ - in this ss ] confirmation in 

ne than contrition and reformation. 

Th- prisonei that loves this notoriety is. I think, the only one that is 
pleased with the risita : the public, and these are the ones that should 
?d of their pride. Others that would hide criminal character are 
ih an by any -. _ tion as a criminal. Others are clearly rendered 
worse. The -pinion prevails very generally among wardens and prison 
*rts and authors on penology that such visiting is not wise, but on 
ie. hurtful. 
There is hardly any other country in the world where it is allowed. 
Isolation is pro] er part of prison discipline. 

Benthaxn's W< rks, Vol. 4, p. 23 to 25. 



IMPROVEMENTS Or THE SYSTEM. 

( A system to I must be good in its various parts and the 

: these must tend in the same direction. To use a homely illus- 
an animal perfect in all other respects, may be ineffective be- 
cause of some defect in one foot. It is somewhat so with systems. I re- 
. system as good. In this i Michigan stands among the 

first of the states. Still it has defects. I will draw attention to some. 
QFirs:: The aid be greater unification. The jails, the reform- 

er and the prisons might be brought into greater harmony so that 
the policy pursued in each should co-operate to achieve the same end. 



PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 29 

This would require that all the prisons and the jails, as well, should b< 
brought under some common supervision. This is done in some coun- 
tries. 

I recognize the great difficulty that would be encountered in any at- 
% tempt to bring any such modification about here. The laudable jealousy 
of our people in guarding their personal and local rights is such that the 
residents in the road districts insist on controlling the road making in 
their localities as though they alone were interested in them, and even 
when they must see that a supervision of road making by an expert 
engineer having a wide field would result in cheaper and better roads. 

A little reflection will convince everyone how totally unlit the county 
jail is for the treatment of offenders after conviction. The keepers 
change often imi very few have any knowledge of the way to treat offend 
ers in order to prevent their repeating crimes. Nor have the jails any 
equipment for this treatment. They have no work to do. And we know 
that the sending of disorderlies to jail has little tendency to lessen dis- 
order — and none to reform the offenders. 

The jail, then, should be used to detain accused persons before trial 
only, and not as a place of punishment after conviction. Provision 
should exist in the jails for keeping those awaiting trial in separate cells. 
Criminality is increased by placing young offenders in jail with hardened 
criminals. Where incarceration after conviction is necessary, it should be 
in some place where the convict can be treated for a cure — some reform- 
atory or house of correction with work to dop) 

Second. In my opinion there should be fewer sentences to imprison- 
ment for minor offenses; that more resort should be had to judicial ad- 
monition and police surveillance, to releases on suspended sentence, on 
The first conviction, and to fines. I believe this course would result in 
less crime and the reclamation of more offenders. A sentence to the 
jail, to the reform school and the reformatory are not to be imposed with- 
out necessity, not to be imposed for minor offences and mere disorderly 
conduct if other treatment will answer. There will be sufficient occasion to 
resort to them when other measures fail. I do not mean by this that crime 
is to be winked at or even treated with leniency undue — but that it should 
be treated discreetly — the most discreetly possible. Considerable dis- 
cretion should be allowed the judge and justice in selecting his punish- 
ment, because criminals and cases vary so much. Judicial admonition, 
suspended sentence, fines and imprisonment should be in the hands of 
the judge. Old Doctor Sangrado, in the Spanish romance administered 
bleeding for every disease and for all its stages. By the third bleeding 
the patient wanted the services of the priest to make his confession, and 
soon the family had need of the undertaker. We should not treat the 
prison or jail as our only prescription. 

I have also thought that among the means for effecting reformation of 
offenders where the offense was the taking of others property or the doing 
of some injury, susceptible of pecuniary reparation, restoration and 
reparation might wisely, in some cases, be insisted on by the magistrate 
as a condition. Reparation is the most natural way of expressing con- 
trition. 

Third. It would be better if the circuit judges would more carefully 
distribute convicts among the prisons — hardened criminals should not 
be sent to Ionia. Only first offenders and such as are believed to be re- 
formable should be sent there. 



30 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

Fourth. Some better mode of procuring jail and prison officials should 
exist, some merit system of appointments. The business from keeper up 
to warden requires trained men, educated in this line. 

Fifth. It would increase the efficiency of the parole law if the warden 
were permitted to go or to send some competent officer of his prison to 
visit occasionally some of the convicts on parole the same as has been 
The practice of the Industrial School for many years. Some states have a 
state agent independent of the prisons who does the work of looking after 
convicts on parole. I do not think that the best way, and it surely is not 
the most economical way. It is not harmonious or conformable to prin- 
ciple. The prisoner on parole is still a prisoner of the prison from which 
he went out. The effect will be better if one from that prison visits him 
while on parole. No new officer or further employee is wanted. Only 
the power in the warden to incur the traveling expenses required for a 
keeper, the deputy or himself to visit some, not all, of the men on parole, 
occasionally when and where need seems to exist. 

Sixth. If the court had the power to make the sentence indetermin- 
ate in cases where he considered that better for the state, I believe this 
would add to the efficiency of the system. I do not see the need of mak- 
ing it mandatory that the sentence be indeterminate. Leave it to the 
discretion of thecourt. The objection that prison boards are not compe- 
tent to determine when a convict should be set at large because of refor- 
mation, is not a sound one to the plan itself, for the reason that better 
men can be put on these .boards if better ability is required: Men as 
competent if you please as circuit judges. The possibility of error would 
remain. But with competent prison boards the errors need not be more 
than exist in the fixed sentence. I should expect them to be fewer, by 
reason of the better opportunity of the prison boards, and the number 
of convicts reformed greater and the number of repetitions of crime by 
the same men less. 

The world has come to regard reformation as one of the purposes of 
imprisonment. It used to be held that the sole purpose was to mete out 
to the convict the punishment he deserved. The court may still do this 
by making the sentence indeterminate, after a certain term to be endured 
at all events. But how can it be declared in advance with certainty 
when the convict will be cured of his criminal habit? Does not this new 
purpose, so much more prominent than formerly, demand that power 
exist somewhere to determine v. hen this future event happens? 

Then, too, there are offenses the punishment of which is solely to pre- 
vent recurrence — for example intemperance. In these cases the question 
is not so much what the prisoner deserves as what will cure him of his 
habit. Are these not cases where the language of our statute in regard 
to juvenile offenders, when it provides that the detention shall be "until 
they are reformed and discharged," may properly be used as to some 
adults also, alone or with limitations as the court deems best? I think 
so. This view is entertained by the prison men and penologists of this 
country. The form of sentence exists in seven of the states and in foreign 
countries generally. I am not aware that it has been anywhere repealed 
after having been once put in operation. 

Finally the first part of imprisonment for crime ought to be more rigid 

and deterrent than it usually is, in order that it may accomplish its pur- 
pose in shorter time. A long rnd easy imprisonment is worse upon the 

criminal than a short and severe one. The latter is better to prevent 



PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 31 

repetitioa of crime. The punishment deemed necessary should be gotten 
into the shortest space of time consistently possible even if this makes 
severer discipline necessary for the briefer time. Some humane persons 
seem to think that measures intended to reform the convict are of most 
Importance. Of all the means for preventing crime and saving crimin- 
als, those intended to make them afraid to commit crime easily outrank 
the others in usefulness. 

In contemplating prison systems and methods, the actual character of 
the prisons the system has to deal with has to be taken into account and 
the purpose kept in view. In ages when prosecutions for political offenses, 
for political and religious opinions and publications, were common, the 
prison population was. to a greater or less extent, drawn from the most 
refined part of society. The patriot, the sage and the prophet were some 
times found there. It was so when imprisonment for debt was common. 
Thanks to our more 1 liberal civilization, this is no longer the case. Now 
the one sent to prison has been adjudged guilty of actual crime and is 
treated because of that and with reference to the future safety of society. 
With nearly all the members of society the obligations of morality, re- 
spect for law and regard for the good will of others are sufficient 
restraints. The moral and social laws alone are so powerful with most 
men that they are quite unconscious of any resort, in their own reflec- 
tions, to the civil law as a guide or restraint. The desire for approbation 
alone is a great force with most persons. 

"For honor we love. 

Who hates honor hates the gods above." 

It has been otherwise with most convicts. They have disregarded the 
sanctions of moral and social laws and put away fear of the civil law. 
With such, punishments have to be employed, and where these fail also, 
imprisonment must be resorted to in order to prevent the commission of 
crime. 

The severest part of the imprisonment ought to be at the first, and 
for two reasons : The suffering for the crime is thereby brought as close 
as possible to the crime and is placed in comparison with it. In the next 
place the same amount of suffering at the first will accomplish more con- 
trition of the convict for his crime than after he has become habited to 
prison life. Thus the aggregate suffering is less. The conditions ought 
to be such that the convict can ameliorate his imprisonment by self- 
discipline. 

The reform in England made some twenty-five years ago adopts this 
view: The first part of all penitentiary imprisonments is more rigid and 
severe than ours, while the last part is generally less so. The effect has 
been beneficial. Our experience tends to show that merely reformatory 
treatment of adult criminals unaided by deterrent measures, though it 
may save some offenders, will not protect society so well or save so many 
from a criminal career as when the treatment is definitely calculated to 
make the offender afraid to pursue a criminal career. Without the suffer- 
ing that follows the infraction of law, mortals will fail to appreciate the 
importance of obeying. Tin 1 philosophy of correction is given by Herbert 
Spencer wiiere he says: "A stern discipline pervades all nature, wdiich 
is a little cruel that it may be very kind. That beneficent though severe 



32 PRISON SYSTEM OF MICHIGAN 

discipline which is pitiless in the working out of good; a felicity pursuing 
law that never swerves for the avoidance of partial and temporary suffer- 
ing." 

More of the spirit of Herbert Spencer's philosophy in our prison system 
and administration would tend to greater security. Let the discipline at 
first be more severe and the sentence correspondingly shorter with a ter- 
mination devised to reinstate the man in a self-supporting way of life- 




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